Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Welcome all newcomers to Creative Late Bloomers. I hope you enjoy this blog dedicated to those souls who have found creative success late in life -- in their fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties and even nineties. For my already faithful followers who have been clamoring for their weekly fix of inspiration, I am happy to report that my profiles of creative late bloomers will resume right after the holidays. Promise. Meanwhile for those in need of immediate inspiration -- or for those who are looking for something late bloomerish to put under the tree this Christmas, here are my Five Top Books For Creative Late Bloomers.

-- Margo Hammond
creativelatebloomers@gmail.com

1. THE GRANNY ALPHABET: PART I

Abecedaries (those A-is-for-Apple-books I loved as a kid) are no longer just for children. British photog Tim Walker, famous for his extravagantly staged fashion shoots, has produced one that is truly grownup and deliciously surreal: The Granny Alphabet, published by Thames & Hudson. When I received my review copy, I was gobsmacked, as the British might say: Elderly models posing as the dearly beloved grannies of our imaginations. All the characters are "entirely fictitious," but we've met them all, from Annie with her cane, sensible black shoes and crocodile bag (a deadringer of Memere, my French grandmother-in-law) to Zelda with her plaid coat and walker (the British call it a Zimmer frame). Kit Hesketh-Harvey supplies clever verses for each letter. Here's the one for Y: Years fly, thinks Yvonne,/Youth flies, too./Yesterday, thinks Yvonne,/I was you.

2. THE GRANNY ALPHABET: PART II

As if that wasn't enough, Walker offers a second volume in the twinset: another abecedaria, this time featuring drawings of little old ladies by English illustrator, designer and portrait painter Lawrence Mynott that begins "A is for Adventurous, B is for Batty, C is for Chic."

And here's the best part: Walker is donating all proceeds from the sale of The Granny Alphabet to Friends of the Elderly, an English organization that provides residential care, nursing care and dementia care for the elderly.

3. THE 100-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT OF THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED

As this rollicking novel opens, Allan Karlsson is stepping out of the first floor of his nursing home in his slippers to escape the tedious celebrations planned for his 100th birthday. While waiting for a bus to get out of town, Karlsson inadvertently steals a suitcase filled with cash owned by a gang of criminals, setting off a picaresque chase across Sweden. A Zelig-like character, Karlsson is not a stranger to adventures: He has had a lifetime of them, saving the lives of a slew of famous people in the process (not to mention inventing the atom bomb). Originally published in Swedish in 2009 and published in the U.S. by Hyperion Books at the end of last year, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is set to be released as a movie in Sweden on Christmas day. Penned by first-time Swedish novelist Jonas Jonasson, the novel has sold more than five million copies in 35 countries.

4. HARRY LIPKIN, PRIVATE EYE

Harry Lipkin at 87 is the world's oldest private detective and star of this whodunit. Harry works out of Miami, carrying a Smith & Wesson snub-nose .38 in the glove compartment of his 40-year-old Chevy Impala, where he also keeps his dentures. This is not a crime novel that you read for the plot, which is lame. You read it for Harry who is one of the most unique characters you'll encounter anywhere. His creator, Barry Fantoni, was a cartoonist and wrote jokes for over 40 years for the British magazine Private Eye. 5. THURSDAYS IN THE PARKAuthor Hilary Boyd is herself a creative late bloomer (see her Creative Late Bloomer profile at Hilary Boyd: Don't Call It Gran Lit ): In 2011 she published Thursdays in the Park when she was 60 after 20 years of rejection slips. The story she tells in Thursdays in the Park also has an it's-never-too-late theme. A 60-year-old woman in a sexless and unhappy marriage falls for a 60-something man she meets in the park where they both bring their grandchildren every Thursday. The novel became an international bestseller last year when it appeared as an e-book (in Britain, it even outsold Fifty Shades of Grey). The Brits called it Gran Lit, a term Boyd roundly rejects. And no wonder. Her protaganist is no "white-bun, baggy-cardie, specs-toting granny," she insists. Well, she's a granny but a sexy one who learns that it's never too late even for sex. On a roll, Boyd this year published two more novels -- Tangled Lives in February and When You Walked Back Into My Life in October. Tangled Lives is about a woman with three grown children who harbors a secret: At 18 she gave up a baby boy for adoption and now her son wants to make contact. When You Walked Back Into My Life tells the story of a love affair that falls apart and may or may not get rekindled years later.

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Inspired by the late-in-life success of her mother, LaVerne Hammond, who began to publish a newspaper column in the St. Petersburg Times at age 86, Margo Hammond, a veteran journalist, has launched this site to gather stories about other late-bloomers who either first began their creative careers or found success after age 50. A long-time book editor and co-author (with Ellen Heltzel) of "Between the Covers: The Book Babes' Guide to a Woman's Reading Pleasures," Margo now encourages others to write down their stories. She holds memoir workshops in the U.S. and abroad, including monthly sessions at the new Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is a popular speaker on the subject of creativity and aging. The book of her mother's columns that she edited, "Post Scripts: A Writing Life After 80," is available on amazon.com. Margo can be reached at creativelatebloomers@gmail.com